Weekly Bestsellers, 15 May 2017

Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Wings and Ruin (Bloomsbury), third in the YA fantasy series that began with A Court of Thorns and Roses, debuts prominently on two lists: #2 on the Publishers Weekly Children’s Frontlist Fiction list, and #3 on the combined USA Today list.

For the most part, I found Luc Besson’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets to be an enjoyable space adventure, deploying consistently dazzling visuals in support of an involving story that never becomes entirely predictable. And while serious issues are intermittently raised, the film is refreshingly unpretentious, in contrast to other recent films, as the director’s primary aim was clearly to entertain audiences, not to enlighten or inspire them with portentous bromides.